SECTION before 1707 English after 1707 British

Transcription

1 SECTION 4 BRITISH COLONIZATION Present 1733 ENGLISH OR BRITISH? THE PROPER TERMS ARE: before 1707 English after 1707 British In 1707 the English Parliament passed the Act of Union, uniting England and Wales with Scotland in a single kingdom called Great Britain. From this point on, all subjects of Great Britain, including English, were called British. And so it was that England began founding North American colonies in T 34

2 4 2 THE THIRTEEN BRITISH COLONIES: AN OVERVIEW, colony a group of people who settle in a new land but remain subject to their original country Between 1607 and 1733 the British founded thirteen colonies on North America s East Coast and successfully ruled them for 169 years. Other nationalities helped settle the colonies, but the population, language, laws, and culture remained predominantly British. In 1776 the colonies broke free of their mother country and became the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE THIRTEEN COLONIES* NEW ENGLAND COLONIES** New Hampshire 1623 Massachusetts 1630 Rhode Island 1636 Connecticut 1636 ATLANTIC OCEAN MIDDLE COLONIES New York 1664 New Jersey 1664 Pennsylvania 1682 Delaware 1664 SOUTHERN COLONIES Maryland 1634 Virginia 1607 North Carolina 1663 South Carolina 1663 Georgia 1733 *The thirteen colonies can be misleading. By 1775 the British had 32 colonies in North America, including Canada, the Floridas, and several Caribbean islands. Only the thirteen above revolted in Initially, Britain s revenue-producing Caribbean sugar islands claimed more of her attention than these thirteen. **Two New England areas later became states. Vermont, an area, claimed by New York and New Hampshire, became the 14th state in Maine, claimed by Massachusetts until 1819, became the 23rd state in

3 4 4 A HANDY GUIDE TO THE THIRTEEN BRITISH COLONIES And now, back to America to see how the British settled their colonies. Private enterprise financed all thirteen British colonies, but all were required to govern by English law. Three kinds of colonies received charters from the king: corporate, proprietary, and royal. CORPORATE COLONIES (C) The King gave charters to joint stock companies (formed by investors) to found and govern colonies for profit with the king getting a percentage. PROPRIETARY COLONIES (P) The King gave charters to individuals (usually his friends or relatives) to colonize and govern. He claimed a percentage of their profits. ROYAL COLONIES (R) By 1775 most of the colonies had become royal colonies, with a governor appointed by the king. COLONY FOUNDED REASONS CHARTERED STATUS in VIRGINIA 1607, Virginia Company Economic C 1606, 09, 12 Royal, since 1624 PLYMOUTH 1620, Pilgrims (Separatists) Religious None Merged w/ Mass., 1691 MAINE 1623, Fernando Gorges Economic P 1639 Bought by Mass., NEW HAMPSHIRE 1623, John Mason Religious, Political R 1679 Royal 3. NEW YORK 1624, Dutch West India Company Economic 1664, English, Duke of York Economic P 1664 Royal, since MASSACHUSETTS 1630, Puritans Religious C 1629 Royal, since MARYLAND 1634, Lord Baltimore Religious P 1632 Proprietary 6. RHODE ISLAND 1636, Roger Williams Religious C 1644, 1663 Self-governing 7. CONNECTICUT 1636, Thomas Hooker Religious, Economic C 1662 Self-governing. 8. DELAWARE 1638, Swedes; 1664, English Economic None Proprietary 9. NORTH CAROLINA 1663, eight English nobles Economic P 1663 Royal, since SOUTH CAROLINA 1663, eight English nobles Economic P 1663 Royal, since NEW JERSEY 1664, John Berkeley, Geo.Carteret Economic None Royal, since PENNSYLVANIA 1682, William Penn Religious P 1681 Proprietary 13. GEORGIA 1733, James Oglethorpe Economic, Political P 1732 Royal, since 1752 Our colonial history as British subjects 169 years is almost as long as our 200+ year history as a republic s To understand the early ideas and events that shaped our American character, we ll explore America s intriguing colonial adventures beginning with JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA. 42

4 4 5 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY, 1607 In the beginning, all America was Virginia. William Byrd Present JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA England s first permanent colony in America was planned as a trading settlement by the Virginia Company of London (a joint stock company)... VIRGINIA Jamestown The purpose: to make money for the 650 investors who each paid twelve pounds, ten shillings per share for stock in the Virginia Company. Adventurers the investors were called, because they were venturing (risking) their money (capital) to make more money (profit)... The Virginia Company s charter, granted by King James I, created Virginia s boundaries along points of the 34th and 41st parallels, running from sea to sea, west and northwest. No one had any idea of the distance from sea to sea. Virginia s indefinite western border caused problems later on The Virginia Company s recruits (105 men) sailed to Virginia on three ships: Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed. They landed April 26, welcomed by the spring fragrance of wild strawberries. The men settled 30 miles up the James River on a marshy peninsula (defensible against Indians and Spanish raiders). They would be governed by a council of seven men, designated among them by the Virginia Company. Sir George Percy wrote: There wee landed and discovered...faire meadowes and goodly tall Trees: with such Freshwaters running through the woods, as I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof... VIRGINIA BECAME A SEEDLING OF LIBERTY, for in the Virginia Company s charter King James I granted Virginians the same liberties...as if they had been abiding and born within this our realm of England. JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA 43 The Virginians built a fort, dug for gold, and searched for a passage to China. However, they failed to plant enough crops for food; by winter, famine and disease killed all but 38 men.

5 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY 1608 Captain John Smith, 27-year-old swashbuckling soldier-of-fortune, took charge and saved the colony by imposing a WORK ETHIC. (Half the settlers were gentlemen, unaccustomed to work.) Rough work blistered the gentlemen s tender hands, causing them to swear loudly. Smith stopped the swearing by pouring cold water into an offender s sleeve one can per swearing. Meanwhile, Powhatan, Supreme Chieftain of the Indian Princess Pocahontas, his thirteen-year-old Powhatan Confederacy (about 9,000 Indians), discussed the daughter, befriended the Englishmen after saving Englishmen at Werowocomocotook, his village 14 miles Captain John Smith s life when the Powhatan Indians had from captured him. Jamestown. This friendship began a period of good relations called the Peace of Pocahontas Tobacco became Virginia s gold when John Rolfe discovered a new way to cure it. Smoking became 1614 John Rolfe married Princess Pocahontas, who had become a Christian, taken the name Lady Rebecca, and begun wearing English clothes. the rage in England, and the Virginia Company prospered by exporting this cash crop. The Virginia Company brought them to London in 1616 to promote a Virginia lottery and introduce Princess Pocahontas to King James I. Pocahontas death in 1617 ended the Peace of Pocahontas. 44

6 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY 1619 SEEDS OF DEMOCRACY AND CAPITALISM The Virginia Company wanted more laborers for tobacco production in order to increase profits. So to entice more settlers from England, it extended Virginia s 1) political freedom DEMOCRACY through a representative legislature (assembly): the HOUSE OF BURGESSES 2) economic freedom CAPITALISM through private ownership of land: the HEADRIGHT SYSTEM. The HOUSE OF BURGESSES met for the first time in July 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia. In 1776, five generations later, leaders from the Virginia assembly grown accustomed to political freedom would lead the colonies to independence from England. The HEADRIGHT SYSTEM allowed private ownership of land (as opposed to company ownership). Each pre-1616 settler received 100 acres of free land. Each thereafter received 50 acres, plus 50 acres for every person he brought from England. HOUSE OF BURGESSES: THE BEGINNING OF SELF-GOVERNMENT The Virginia House Of Burgesses became the colonies first representative legislative assembly and in 1790 a model for the U.S. House of Representatives. Burgess (or burger ) is an old English term meaning free citizen. Each Virginia district elected two men to serve in the assembly which, along with the Virginia Company-appointed governor and council, made laws for the colony. By 1698 the House of Burgesses won the exclusive right to make tax laws, assuring Virginians of a bulwark of freedom: NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION AT THE SAME TIME THE VIRGINIA COMPANY EXTENDED POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM TO THE COLONY, TWO GROUPS NOT INCLUDED IN THESE FREEDOMS WERE BROUGHT TO VIRGINIA: Ninety adventurous women arrived in 1619, sent by the Virginia Company as wives for the Jamestown settlers. Each groom paid 120 pounds of tobacco for his bride s passage. Twenty kidnapped Africans were sold to the Jamestown settlers by the captain of a Dutch ship. As indentured servants, they probably were freed after several years. But by the late 1600s, black servitude turned into black slavery. 45

7 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY INDENTURED SERVANTS AND SLAVES The headright system encouraged Virginians to acquire land (50 acres per person) by importing people from England who would sign a contract for three to seven years of servitude (unpaid labor), in exchange for their passage to America. After their servitude, they were free. Many of these contract-servants were illiterate and could not read their contract. To protect them against fraud, duplicate contracts were notched, or indented. If there were any contract disputes, the notches, or indentures, had to match. About 75 percent of Virginia s settlers in the l600s came as indentured servants. Those surviving a high death toll (from hunger, disease, and abuse) sometimes settled on the frontier where land was more plentiful. Other colonies (mostly southern) also used identured servants. Africans in Virginia at first treated as indentured servants with longer terms were enslaved between 1650 and White indentured servants outnumbered black slaves in Virginia until indentured servant a person who exchanged 3 to 7 years of servitude for passage to America. slave a person who was bought and sold as property and forced to work. In 1622 tragedy struck Virginia! 1624 King James I, who disliked representative government, used the massacre and the Virginia Company s financial problems as an excuse to revoke the Company s charter and make Virginia a royal colony. He dismissed the House of Burgesses, but the members met anyway. In 1639 his son King Charles I reinstated the House of Burgesses. Virginians prospered under royal rule, but they guarded their right to legislative self government. Sir William Berkeley served as one of the first royally appointed governors of Virginia. Although an able ruler, he had no use for liberty. In the 1670s frontier settlers in western Virginia rebelled against the autocratic rule of Governor Berkeley. He levied high taxes, while denying frontiersmen a voice in the government and protection against invading Indians BACON S REBELLION Nathaniel Bacon, a frontier planter, led the frontiersmen in a rebellion against Governor Berkeley, driving him from Jamestown and burning the town. When Bacon died of a sudden illness, so did the rebellion. However, King Charles II replaced Berkeley, restoring harmony to the colony. 46

8 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY The...large plantation...fostered habits of self-reliance in individual men; it assisted in promoting an intense love of liberty; it strengthened the ties of family and kinship at the very time that it cultivated the spirit of general hospitality. Phillip Bruce Present TIDEWATER PLANTATIONS AND TIDEWATER GENTRY Geography determines history. Virginia s rich coastal plain, fingered with deep rivers, led to an agricultural economy and a rural society. During the 1700s Virginians spread upland from Jamestown and developed large tobacco farms along the rivers. The farms, often covering thousands of acres, were called TIDEWATER PLANTATIONS and their owners, TIDEWATER GENTRY. Tidewater describes the ocean tides that swelled the rivers and made them navigable for seagoing ships. Ships could sail inland 80 to 100 miles as far as the fall line, that is, the beginning of the foothills leading to the Appalachian Mountains. The foothills region is called the Piedmont. Tidewater plantations: The choice land, of course, was along the tidewater rivers because cash crops, mainly tobacco, could be loaded directly on ships headed for England, cutting out the cost of middlemen. Tidewater gentry, although a minority compared to small farmers, emerged as an aristocratic ruling class that dominated Virginia politics. Power remained for generations in the hands of families such as the Byrds, Carters, Lees, Randolphs, and Harrisons in part by the law of primogeniture: inheritance of an entire estate by the eldest son (a law Thomas Jefferson led Virginia to abandon in 1776). Today, you can visit many James River plantations, including those of U.S. Presidents Benjamin Harrison, William Henry Harrison, and John Tyler. TIDEWATER PLANTATIONS were self-contained economic units resembling small towns. Nearly everything consumed was produced on site by slaves, without whose labor plantations couldn t have existed. Each plantation had its own dock, where ships unloaded goods planters had ordered and loaded tobacco for sale in England. Virginians felt more in touch with England than New England. Rural isolation had its effects. There being no public schools, planters educated their children in England or at home with hired tutors. Visits from relatives and friends were major events and hospitality became a southern trait. Neighboring planters used the rivers as transportation in visiting. Highlights of the year came with spring and fall trips to Williamsburg. Let s go there now. 47

9 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY Present WILLIAMSBURG In 1699 Virginians moved the capital from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, a small village seven miles away, and renamed it Williamsburg, for King William III. Governor Francis Nicholson designed Williamsburg as a beautiful new city that would reflect Virginia s importance as the largest English colony (1700 population: 70,000). It remained the capital until Williamsburg s population of 2,000 doubled twice annually at Publick Times when the legislature and courts were in session. Every spring and fall Virginians, a rural, agricultural people, congregated in the colony s only city for a few weeks of business, politics, shopping and a whirlwind social season of fairs, balls, theater, music, and horseracing. For 81 years Williamsburg served as a cosmopolitan center of learning, government, business, and religion for Virginia s plantation gentry, many of whom would lead the American Revolution in 1776 and form the American republic. Here were shaped the public lives of men who shaped American history and thus your own life. You will read of them later, but now imagine them here in Williamsburg as college students and/or burgesses (members of the House of Burgesses). SCENES AT WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA, GOVERNOR S PALACE George Washington (a burgess for 15 years) dancing three hours nonstop at fancy royal balls; college student Thomas Jefferson dining and playing in musical quartets with the royal governor; Jefferson and Patrick Henry each living here as governor, following American independence. COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY Students Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Marshall reading John Locke s Enlightenment ideas about natural law in human society: the right to life, liberty, and property. BRUTON PARISH CHURCH (Anglicanism was the official religion of Virginia.) Burgesses James Madison, Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, and George Washington worshipping; Washington also serving as vestryman. DUKE OF GLOUCESTER STREET Burgess Thomas Jefferson jogging his daily mile down the broad, nearly-mile-long avenue. HOUSE OF BURGESSES in CAPITOL Burgess Patrick Henry thunderously protesting the Stamp Act; 1776 Burgesses voting for independence. Today, you can visit Williamsburg and experience life as it was in the 1700s, thanks to the generosity of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who, in the 1920s, restored Williamsburg to its colonial splendor and to the vision of the Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Bruton Parish Church, who inspired him to do so. 48

10 VIRGINIA: SEEDLING OF LIBERTY A SUMMARY : REVOLUTIONARY WAR Virginians in the House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress spearheaded the colonies struggle for independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and George Washington won the war as commander in chief of the Continental Army. FROM JAMESTOWN TO YORKTOWN In one of the great ironies of history, the British in 1781 lost their North American colonial empire at the Battle of Yorktown 12 miles from Jamestown where they had launched it in THE SEEDLING TREE OF LIBERTY HAD TAKEN ROOT IN VIRGINIA SOIL. VIRGINIA UNITED STATES PRESIDENTS FROM VIRGINIA VIRGINIA STATEHOOD (western boundary variable until 1863) 1776 Virginia wrote a state constitution and became an independent commonwealth. The militia forced Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, to leave Virginia Patrick Henry served as governor Thomas Jefferson served as governor The capital was moved to Richmond Virginia ratified the United States Constitution Virginia seceded from the Union, joined the Confederate States of America, and became a major battleground in the Civil War Richmond became the capital of the Confederate States of America Virginia was admitted back into the Union. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe William Henry Harrison 1841 John Tyler Zachary Taylor Woodrow Wilson And now, to continue the story of British colonization, on to New England. 49

11 4 6 NEW ENGLAND: PLYMOUTH COLONY PILGRIMS, 1620 pilgrim one who makes a religious journey They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their 1492 dearest country. William Bradford, second governor of Plymouth Present 1620 In contrast to Jamestown, a business venture, Plymouth Colony was founded for religious reasons. September 6, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, bringing 102 English men, women, and children to found Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, the second permanent English colony in America. About 35 were Puritan Pilgrims from Scrooby, England, who after a decade in Holland were seeking religious freedom in America. These Puritans are called Pilgrims because of their religious journey. They also are called Separatists because they were separating from the Anglican Church. Financed by 70 London merchants, the group had obtained a land grant from the Virginia Company. But a storm blew them off course to Massachusetts instead of northern Virginia. They anchored off Cape Cod on November 10, ATLANTIC NEW ENGLAND Plymouth Plymouth Jamestown The rest on board were Anglicans (including John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, and Miles Standish) seeking economic opportunity. A problem arose. The Pilgrims were outside the Virginia Company s jurisdiction, so they had no government or laws. And the Anglicans (upset at missing Virginia) threatened mutiny against the Pilgrims. OCEAN CAPE COD So, still aboard ship, Pilgrim leaders William Bradford and William Brewster invited all 41 males Puritan Pilgrims and Anglicans alike, regardless of religious and class differences to sign the Mayflower Compact. The Pilgrims signed first and waited. Would the Anglicans sign or mutiny? Finally, Captain Miles Standish, in charge of military defense, led the other Anglicans in signing. America s first adventure in democracy had begun. The men immediately elected John Carver governor, the first democratically elected governor in America. 50

12 NEW ENGLAND: PLYMOUTH COLONY PILGRIMS THE MYSTERY OF PLYMOUTH The Pilgrims went ashore to explore Plymouth and found the Indian village deserted. WHERE WERE THE INDIANS? Only their drying corn fields remained. On Christmas day, 1620, the Pilgrims began building their settlement of rude huts. Sleet and snow and disease took their toll. About half the group died that winter. Samoset had learned English while sailing the Maine coast with English captains. He now revealed the mystery of Plymouth. Plymouth was once an Indian village of about 2,000, named Pawtuxet. In 1617 a great plague [perhaps smallpox] killed all its people except my friend Squanto, who earlier had been captured by an English sea captain and sold as a slave in Spain. He escaped and went to England, where he learned English. In 1619 he sailed back to America, only to find his people gone and his village Pawtuxet deserted. He was grief-stricken. Squanto now lives with Chief Massasoit and the Wampanoag Indians on Narragansett Bay. I will bring him to see you. Millions of Native Americans were killed by European diseases, brought on by the white man, for which they had no immunity. THANKSGIVING The New England autumn brought a good 210-acre corn harvest, so the grateful Pilgrims (about sixty by then) set aside a day for feasting and giving thanks to God. They invited the Wampanoags, and Chief Massasoit arrived with 90 hungry Indians! (In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday.) 51 Then on March 16, 1621, an astonishing event occurred that helped save the colony: Samoset, an Abnaki Indian from Maine, strolled into Plymouth and welcomed the settlers in English. When Squanto arrived, he befriended the Pilgrims. He taught them survival skills, such as how to plant corn (a New World plant) and to trap game. He lived with them and even adopted their religion. They were amazed that Squanto had lived in their homeland and spoke English. He became their interpreter and arranged a peace treaty with the Wampanoag Indians.

13 Chief Massasoit and the 90 Wampanoags had such a good time that they stayed on for three days of feasting and games of skill and chance. NEW ENGLAND: PLYMOUTH COLONY PILGRIMS PLYMOUTH VILLAGE: A FREE ENTERPRISE ADVENTURE By 1627 Plymouth was a thriving village of about 200. At first the settlers had owned land collectively, but when complaints arose because some worked harder than others, private ownership of land was allowed (1623), making all hands very industrious. Plymouth had learned the lesson of Jamestown: people work harder when they own their own property. By working hard at farming, fishing, and fur trading, the Pilgrims earned enough money to buy out their London investors (1627). They became self-supporting and independent. In 1622 the Pilgrims heard of the Virginia massacre by Powhatan Indians. They decided to build a fort around the village. A SELF-GOVERNING CHURCH CONGREATIONAL CHURCH Based on the democratic Reformation doctrine priesthood of every believer, each church congregation was independent, holding yearly elections to choose its pastor and other officers. This democratic practice in church government became the model for New England s local civil government, the town meeting. A SELF-GOVERNING COMMONWEALTH TOWN MEETINGS By 1643 Plymouth Colony had ten towns. Each elected two representatives to a legislature, called the General Court, which enacted colonial laws. And each held democratic town meetings, where all freemen could discuss and vote on local affairs. In 1621 Plymouth Colony elected 32-year old William Bradford as governor. A man of energy, courage, and wit, he served for 30 years. 52

14 NEW ENGLAND: PLYMOUTH COLONY PILGRIMS Plymouth and other New England towns lived at peace with New England Indians until the 1670s, except for a defensive attack against the Pequot Indians in But by 1675 the New England population of 40,000 double that of the Indian population had taken so much Indian land that Chief Massasoit s heir Metacomet, called King Philip by the Puritans for his princely ways, warned: AND THEN CAME KING PHILIP S WAR: METACOMET The New England Confederation, a colonial defense league ( ), sent 1,000 soldiers to fight the Indians. In 1676 they killed the Indian King Philip and won the war. Of 90 New England towns, 40 were burned and 12 destroyed. But the Indians loss was greater: The land of their ancestors now clearly belonged to the white man. Such would be the story for the next two centuries. In 1691 Plymouth Colony (pop. about 7,000) was incorporated by its larger neighbor, Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in Today, we still honor the Pilgrims for their faith and courage and for nurturing the American Tree of Liberty with their democratic practices. MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY...and as one small candle may light a thousand; so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea...to our whole nation. Governor William Bradford 53

15 4 7 NEW ENGLAND: MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY, 1630 Within a decade of founding Plymouth, the English Pilgrims, or Separatists, had new neighbors: English Puritans who settled Massachusetts Bay Colony and established the second representative assembly in British America What brought them over? Present KING CHARLES I disliked English Puritans because they insisted on purifying the Anglican church (unlike the Separatists who cut all ties). When he ruled without Parliament ( ), he harassed these dissenters, or noncomformists, aiming to harrie them out of the land. The result: a Great Migration of more than 20,000 English Puritans to New England between 1629 and In 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Company Puritans sailed 1,000 strong on 17 ships into Boston Harbor to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony. With Boston a hub, they spread to several small communities. Led by John Winthrop, an English lawyer, they brought their Company charter with them and transformed the Company into a self-governing commonwealth, based on Puritan religious ideas. Winthrop served as governor for 12 years. Among the first to migrate were Puritans who in 1629 formed the Massachusetts Bay Company, a trading company. But in 1634 Puritans from Watertown protesting taxation without representation asked to read the charter for themselves. They made quite a discovery. Winthrop reluctantly agreed to a representative assembly, the second in British America. Each town would elect two deputies to meet as a legislative body with the governor and assistants in the General Court. Governor Winthrop distrusted democracy. He thought God s will not the people s should determine laws. So he misrepresented the charter to the colonists, saying only he and 18 assistants could make laws and govern. The Puritans church, based on the protestant doctrine, priesthood of the believer, also had self-government.the name of the church, Congregational, reflects this democratic approach. 54

16 NEW ENGLAND: MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY Church and state were closely entwined in Puritan Massachusetts. The state government supported the church by: 1. requiring every person to attend church, whether a member or not However, church and state were separate in these ways: 1. Ministers could not hold public office. 2. Public officials could not hold church offices. 2. requiring every town to support its church minister through taxes The state s purpose, according to the Puritans, was to encourage a godly community by supporting the church. The Puritans made the Congregational church the established (official) church of the colony. They persecuted other sects. 3. enforcing moral codes, as well as blue laws that prohibited frivolity on Sunday (dancing, drinking, card-playing) By 1684 Massachusetts operated as an almost independent republic, ignoring even England s trade laws; so King James II revoked its charter and made it a royal colony. In 1686 England sought greater control by creating the Dominion of New England (including colonies from Maine to Delaware), governed by Sir Edmund Andros. The autocratic governor dismissed Massachusetts assembly, restricted town meetings, and introduced Anglican worship. In 1691 Massachusetss received a new royal charter, ending Puritan rule with: 1. a royally appointed rather than an elected governor 2. voting rights based on property rather than religion 3. incorporation of Plymouth Colony 1692 Belief in witches, a common European superstition for centuries, also infected the colonies. Massachusetts unsettling times helped spawn mass hysteria in Salem, where 19 women and one man accused as witches were executed. When Governor Phipps wife and other prominent people were accused, the Salem witch hunt stopped. 4. freedom of worship for all Protestants. (However, the Congregational church remained the established church until 1820.) 55 In England s Glorious Revolution dethroned despotic King James II, and the Dominion of New England collapsed. Angry Puritans turned on Andros, who fled disguised as a woman. Betrayed by his boots, he was captured and imprisoned. And now, on to other New England colonies.

17 4 8 NEW ENGLAND: RHODE ISLAND, CONNECTICUT, AND NEW HAMPSHIRE Present 1636 RHODE ISLAND Roger Williams, a Separatist minister, was banished from Massachusetts in 1636 for his belief in separation of church and state and for saying that the colonists should have paid the Indians for their land. After wintering with the Narragansett Indians, he bought land from them and settled Providence. Later he founded the colony of Rhode Island, creating a democratic government with religious freedom and separation of church and state. State religions have prevailed throughout history. Roger Williams challenged America to an adventure in freedom few in the world have dared: the freedom of religious belief. Roger Williams set the precedent for freedom of religion and separation of church and state, later supported by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In 1638 Anne Hutchinson joined Williams in Rhode Island and founded Portsmouth. Banished from Massachusetts for teaching that God spoke to people directly, not just through the Bible, she also had violated a belief about woman s role CONNECTICUT In 1636 Thomas Hooker and other Puritans who disagreed with Massachusetts requirement of church membership for voting settled the fertile Connecticut River valley. The AMERICAN HALL OF FAME honors him for this unique contribution to human freedom your freedom to think and believe as you choose. In 1639 the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, written by Connecticut Puritans, became America s first written constitution. It created a democratic government, with voting rights based on property ownership rather than religious beliefs NEW HAMPSHIRE In 1623 Fernando Gorges and John Mason received from the Council of New England a land grant between the Kennebec and Merrimac Rivers. Mason took the western half and named it New Hampshire; Gorges named his eastern half Maine. Neither man was very successful in establishing settlements. During the 1630s Puritans from Massacusetts settled in both areas, and by the 1650s Massachusetts claimed the regions by right of settlement. In 1679 NEW HAMPSHIRE became a colony. In 1820 MAINE, never a separate colony, became a state. 56

18 God shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, The Lord make it like that of New England. John Winthrop, 1630 Puritanism declined after Massachusetts became a royal colony in 1691, but a 3-fold Puritan legacy makes John Winthrop s hope a reality. CHURCH MEETING 4 9 NEW ENGLAND S PURITAN LEGACY, DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT: RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL The Puritans were not democrats, but paradoxically, they carried the seeds of democracy in their Protestant religious doctrine, the priesthood of the believer, sometimes expressed as every person his own priest. This belief that individuals were capable of reading and interpreting the Bible for themselves, without any intervening authority led to 1) individualism, 2) freedom of conscience, and 3) self-government in both church and state. In turn, Puritan self-government based on a covenant (agreement) among men and deriving its powers from the consent of the governed set the framework for American democracy. THOMAS JEFFERSON CALLED NEW ENGLAND TOWNS LITTLE REPUBLICS, the best schools for political liberty the world ever saw. By 1776 their graduates included such leaders of American independence as Samuel Adams, John Adams, and John Hancock. 2. FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION Puritans emphasized intellect as well as emotion in their religion because they viewed education as a means to understanding the Bible. With every person his own priest, each individual bore the awesome responsibility for his own salvation, which involved reading and interpreting the Bible. This made literacy the ability to read and write and scholarship (knowledge through study) essential. Samuel Willard explained, Faith doth not...cast out reason, for there is nothing in religion contrary to it... In the 1600s the majority of New England s ministers were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, and many were outstanding scholars including John Cotton, said to be a walking library; Increase Mather, president of Harvard College ( ); and his son Cotton Mather, author of 450 books. Secular as well as religious reasons stirred Puritan interest in education. The Massachusetts Code of 1648 stated that, the good education of children is of singular...benefit to any Common-wealth. Specifically, it enabled them to read and understand the laws. Scarcely five years after carving Boston from the wilderness, Massachusetts Puritans founded two educational institutions, still in existence: 1635 Boston Latin School, for boys preparing for college Harvard College, a private school to train ministers. As one Puritan wrote, After God had carried us safe to New-England, one of the next things we longed...after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when the present ministers shall lie in the dust. Next, Massachusetts passed ground-breaking legislation: 1642 a law requiring families to teach their children to read. This became the first such law in the English-speaking world a law requiring that towns of more than 50 families maintain a primary school for girls and boys, and towns of more than 100 families, a Latin grammar school for boys. Parents whose children did not attend were required to teach them to read at home, else pay a fine. In effect, juvenile illiteracy became illegal. America s intellectual roots, established in free public schools under local control, are a priceless Puritan legacy. 57 TOWN MEETING For centuries, only the wealthy few could go to school. Today, if you have learned to read, write, count, and think in a public school free of charge you can thank the Puritans. In the 1640s Massachusetts Puritans pioneered in establishing tax-supported public education, free and available to all. The other New England colonies quickly followed suit. Not until the 1830s, however, did other sections of the country have a state public school system. The South had none until after the Civil War. What motivated the Puritans to so value learning?

19 NEW ENGLAND S PURITAN LEGACY A person should have a calling, or vocation, so he may Glorify God by doing Good for Others, and getting of Good for himself. Cotton Mather 3. THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC: INDUSTRY+VIRTUE+FRUGALITY=SUCCESS DO YOU FEEL GUILTY WHEN YOU RE NOT WORKING EVEN IF YOUR WORK IS DONE? THEN YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC, PERHAPS OUR STRONGEST PURITAN LEGACY, AND FOR 300 YEARS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FORCE IN SHAPING THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. HERE S WHAT IT ALL MEANS. Puritans faced a constant religious dilemma: Am I saved or not? Will I go to heaven or not? The troubling question arose from the Protestant doctrine of predestination, set forth in the 1500s by John Calvin. According to Calvin a person, through free choice, could attain salvation from mankind s sinful state through faith in Jesus. However (here s the catch), the choice actually was predetermined, or predestined, because God has known since creation the choice of every person. And so, the unanswerable question: Am I predestined for salvation? New England Puritans relieved their anxiety by following John Calvin s advice: Glorify God as if you were saved. Then, if so, you ll go to heaven anyway when you die. If not, at least you made the world a better place. And how might one glorify God? Through the following steps, which came to be called: THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC 1) INDUSTRY Work hard at your calling, or vocation, whether a day laborer or doctor. 2) VIRTUE Be honest; maintain righteous conduct in all ways. 3) FRUGALITY Spend money not on yourself (indulgence diverts you from glorifying God) but on charity and reinvestment in your work. In the 1700s Benjamin Franklin gave success a secular rather than religious meaning. In this form, the Protestant Work Ethic has become a measure of the American character. Leave off any of the three parts, and one s character is questioned. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 58

20 4 10 THE MIDDLE COLONIES: NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, AND DELAWARE Present The Middle Colonies were all proprietary colonies, given by the king to favored individuals who could dispose of the land as they wished, appoint officials, and make laws in accordance with the laws of England and subject to their colonists agreement. Unlike the New England and Southern colonies, the Middle colonies had some non-english origins the Dutch on the Hudson River, the Swedes on the Delaware River, the Germans in Pennsylvania and were characterized by ethnic diversity and religious toleration. Rich soil led to commercial farming. With grain the chief crop, the Middle Colonies were called Bread Colonies NEW YORK: A DUTCH COLONY 1609 Henry Hudson, an English seaman hired by the Dutch, claimed NEW the Hudson River YORK for Holland. Hudson River The Dutch West India Company encouraged settlers of many nationalities and faiths (although the Dutch Reformed Church was the official church). A visiting French priest observed: 1624 The Dutch West India Company established the colony of New Netherland along the Hudson River valley to develop fur trading. It granted large estates to patroons, anyone bringing 50 settlers. Only the Van Rensselaer patroonship succeeded Dutch Governor Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Canarsie Indians for trinkets worth about $24. There the Dutch established a trading post, New Amsterdam; later named New York City, it became a thriving seaport NEW YORK: AN ENGLISH COLONY 1664 English King Charles II, desiring the land between Virginia and Massachusetts, made his brother James, Duke of York (later, King James II), proprietor of New Netherland if he could take it from the Dutch! When James sent four ships to conquer New Netherland, the Dutch colonists ignored autocratic Governor Peter Stuyvesant s order to resist. They surrendered and became an English colony renamed New York with all the rights of Englishmen. Anglicanism became the official religion. The Dutch lost New York to England, but they left their mark on America through: famous people Roosevelts, Vanderbilts words fun, cookie, boss, yacht, yankee (from Janke, or Johnny, a Dutch term for New Englanders) customs Santa Claus and Easter eggs 59

21 THE MIDDLE COLONIES 1664 NEW JERSEY In 1664 the Duke of York gave land between the Hudson and Delaware rivers to two friends, John Berkeley and George Carteret, who named their colony New Jersey (after the Isle of Jersey in England). They divided their grant into East Jersey and West Jersey, and established religious and political freedom to attract colonists. In 1702 New Jersey united and became a royal colony PENNSYLVANIA William Penn had a nice surprise! William Penn, an English Quaker, made Pennsylvania a haven for persecuted Quakers, a religious group that believed all people had the Inner Light of God within them; thus all were equal including women, blacks, and Indians. Penn s Frames of Government guaranteed political and religious freedom and also provided economic opportunity: every male settler received 50 acres of land. The colony s elected unicameral (one house) legislature had greater autonomy than other colonial assemblies. William Penn advertised his Holy Experiment (based on tolerance, truth, and peace) in Europe, attracting thousands of Germans and Scotch-Irish, as well as French, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Finns, and English. In 1638 the New Sweden Company founded New Sweden on Delaware Bay. The colony was taken over by New Netherland in 1655, then lost to England s Duke of York in DELAWARE In 1682 William Penn bought Delaware from New York and in 1702 allowed it to elect its own assembly as the colony of Delaware. However, Pennsylvania governed Delaware until the Revolution. The Swedes of Delaware made two important contributions to America: 1. introduction of the Lutheran Church 2. log cabin design and construction, used by westward-moving frontiersmen 60

22 4 11 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA Present 1607 VIRGINIA We have already learned about Virginia in detail. Virginia set the pace for other southern colonies with its rural, agricultural society; slave based economy; established Anglican Church; and absence of public schools MARYLAND In 1634 Cecelius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, founded Maryland as a haven for Catholics to worship as they pleased (a right denied in England). He did so through a proprietary grant given by King Charles I to his late father George Calvert. Protestants soon outnumbered Catholics in Maryland, and Calvert realized that Catholic freedom must be protected. The Toleration Act of 1649, a landmark of religious liberty, granted freedom of worship to all Christians. In 1691 Protestants made Anglicanism the state s official religion NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA In 1663 King Charles II gave eight nobles a proprietary grant stretching from Virginia to the Spanish border of Florida. The proprietors goal a prosperous trade in rice, indigo, silk, and wine was reached by importing enslaved Africans to work on the plantations. By 1710 blacks outnumbered the whites. In 1729 King George II took over the colony and divided it into North and South Carolina. In 1733 James Oglethorpe and a group of trustees acquired a land grant from King James II to settle Georgia as a haven for English debtors, people imprisoned for owing money GEORGIA Georgia served as a military barrier against Spanish Florida. In 1752 Georgia s charter expired, and it became a royal colony. SMALL FARMS: SUBSISTENCE CROPS The South s rich, deep soil made agriculture the region s chief economic base. Most southerners had small farms they worked themselves, with few slaves or none. They grew subsistence crops (crops they consumed rather than sold). PLANTATIONS: CASH CROPS Some wealthy southerners had plantations large farms that used slave labor to grow cash crops (crops sold for profit), such as cotton, tobacco, and rice The MASON-DIXON Line, surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, settled a boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. This line divided slave and free states during the Civil War and is considered a North-South boundary. 61